Chatham-Kent Council is proposing additional measures to address the shortage of family doctors in the municipality.
During a meeting on Monday, Ward 1 Councillor Melissa Harrigan and Ward 2 Councillor Anthony Ceccacci submitted a lengthy motion that called for several actions, including an increase in funding for Chatham-Kent’s Physician Recruitment And Retention Task Force to $85,000 annually.
While council did not pass the first part of the motion, it was referred to the 2025 budget deliberations, which will take place from November 26-28.
Councillor Harrigan said much of the motion was drafted based on suggestions from a staff information report to council, which presented options for addressing Chatham-Kent’s doctor shortage.
“Residents in Chatham-Kent would look at this motion and look at our investments and see value in what the municipality is doing,” she said. “You would be hard-pressed to find a resident in Chatham-Kent who says ‘No I don’t think we should spend tax dollars on bringing more doctors into Chatham-Kent.”‘
The other items in the motion were deferred to the next general council meeting on December 2. This includes establishing a Primary Care Family Physician Incentive Reserve of $120,000 annually, which would be funded by a transfer from Chatham-Kent’s strategic reserves. That reserve would also be made available to the four primary care organizations in Chatham-Kent for providing incentives to newly established physicians.
“People might think that a $20,000-$25,000 incentive is a lot of money,” said Harrigan. “Recently, Niagara Region passed on council $25,000, $70,000 and $100,000 respectively across different regions [for physician incentives]. So when we look at competition in other regions, having nothing is certainly not an option.”
According to the physician recruitment task force, Chatham-Kent currently has 32,421 residents who do not have a family doctor. To accommodate those patients, to fill existing positions with local family health teams, and to account for 11 practicing physicians nearing retirement age, the municipality is in need of around 45 family physicians.